Cave, Hillcoat take swipe at war on drugs

Musician Nick Cave and director John Hillcoat have taken a swipe at the "failed" war on drugs as they presented their Prohibition-era rural gangster movie Lawless at Cannes.

"Prohibition still exists today. It still fails ethically, with the so-called war on drugs," Cave, who wrote the script, said after a press screening that saw the work by his fellow Australian get a restrained clap.

Lawless features Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeaouf, Guy Pearce with Mia Wasikowska and Jessica Chastain as the love interests in a violent slice of hillbilly moonshine myth-making based on a true story from the 1930s United States when alcohol was banned.

Hillcoat said that he saw many parallels to today "with the economic crisis, the political crisis, the war on drugs".

He said he had made a montage that was due to start the film that showed modern-day Mexican drug cartels, then moved back "through the 80s and the Cubans and cocaine and heroin in New York, and went way back and landed on prohibition, where it kind of all kicked off".

"That was the birth of serious organised crime and it's been going ever since. So it feeds into all of those things that are going on today," he said, adding that he later decided not to include the montage.

Based on Matt Bondurant's The Wettest County in the World, Lawless is one of 22 films in the running for the Palme d'Or top prize at Cannes to be handed out on May 27.